The companion

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Title page of the first edition
Data
Title: The companion
Genus: Acting in one act
Original language: German
Author: Arthur Schnitzler
Publishing year: 1899
Premiere: March 1, 1899
Place of premiere: Burgtheater , Vienna
Place and time of the action: in a summer vacation not far from Vienna; on an autumn evening last year
people
  • Professor Robert Pilgram
  • Doctor Alfred Hausmann
  • Professor Werkmann
  • Professor Brand
  • Olga Merholm
  • A servant

The companion is a play in one act by Arthur Schnitzler , which was premiered on March 1, 1899 in the Burgtheater . In the same year, S. Fischer in Berlin published the text edition together with the one-act plays The Green Cockatoo and Paracelsus .

In a first version, Schnitzler had already dealt with the subject matter of a husband who had to revise his view of marriage due to discoveries after the death of his wife, in the novella Der Wittwer published in 1894 . This became the template from which Schnitzler worked out the subject dramatically from 1896.

time and place

The piece takes place on an autumn evening towards the end of the 19th century in a summer resort near Vienna.

content

The mourners believe that Robert never loved his Eveline, who died of a heart attack . The professor appears accordingly. He wants to forget; dive into academic work. His neighbor Olga Merholm appears and wants letters back that she once wrote to Eveline. In the course of the dialogue between the two neighbors, the viewer learns that Robert saw Eveline as a lover, not a companion. Worse still - Robert suggests that his wife had a relationship with his friend Dr. Alfred Hausmann during his lifetime. It started three years ago.

Alfred arrives at the news of his death. Robert soon realizes that everything was very different. Alfred has had a Viennese bride for two years. Despite this surprising clarification, the newcomer is chased out by the host. Alfred goes.

Olga explains to Robert and the audience. Alfred didn't betray Robert. Eveline knew that Alfred was about to get married. That is also evident from the letters that Olga wants back. Robert doesn't understand at all. If Olga knew everything, why didn't she tell him about it? Olga only has regrets for Eveline's lonely life.

reception

  • Kerr also praises Schnitzler's drama because it contains the design elements of “concealment” and “waiver of completeness”. In The companion , the exact applicability of the assertion of the above. Theater critic can be proven, for example, in the figure of Olga Merholm. The viewer has to think, however, until he realizes: The widower Professor Pilgram, blinded during his wife's lifetime, sought the closeness of his married neighbor Olga Merholm. Now that his friend Doctor Alfred Hausmann has opened his eyes to his relationship with the deceased Eveline, the widower clears the table. He leaves the summer resort. The professor moves away from the neighbor, who deliberately left him in the dark.
  • The piece demonstrates the futility of civil marriage (Scheible).
  • In his brief review, Korte classifies the play as an analytical drama .

Film adaptations

Radio plays

Radio plays ( Memento from December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), entries 28 and 29

Web links

literature

source
  • Arthur Schnitzler: The companion. Play in one act. Pp. 259–277 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Reigen. The one-act. With an afterword by Hermann Korte . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (edition 2000). 602 pages, ISBN 3-10-073557-9
First edition
Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Playbill for the premiere. March 1, 1899, Retrieved January 10, 2017 .
  2. ^ Sprengel, p. 452, 13. Zvu
  3. ↑ Quoted in the afterword of the source, p. 597, 2. Zvo: Alfred Kerr: Das neue Drama . Berlin 1920 (2nd edition), p. 74
  4. ↑ Source, p. 264 above
  5. ↑ Scheible, p. 73, 11. Zvo
  6. ↑ Source, p. 595, 4. Zvo